[Noah930]

Thanks for the all the advice.

I'm not going to go through the effort of small claims court. I'd win on principle, but the time and aggravation aren't going to be worth it. Collection of my winnings will be suspect, as well. I'll just take a tax deduction on loss of value of the vehicle and donate it to a family/friend. It'll cost more to fix than the value of the car.

I didn't have collision (knowingly assumed the risk for that). Unintentionally I didn't have uninsured motorist coverage. We changed insurance policies last year, and I assumed all our coverage was equivalent. However (not blaming Mrs. Noah), but Mrs. Noah handled the switchover, and apparently this was lost in translation. I doubt our insurance (USAA) would consider this an uninsured motorist, anyway.

The other driver lives in New York. She only very reluctantly gave me her car insurance info. Took a couple weeks to get it out of her, and she wouldn't give it to me--only to my insurance company. Her insurance agreed my car is a total loss, but then declined any liability because she wasn't driving one of her own cars. I should ask them for a letter stating this part of their policy. Thanks for that advice.

In California, insurance rests with the car, not the driver. So Hertz owns the car, and Hertz (or ESIS) is liable. So thanks for the confirmation, G50 and ramone. We'll see if anything ever comes of this. Either I'll get paid (or whichever friend/family member winds up with the car), or I'll take a tax deduction on the loss. I'm retiring and moving cross-country. This car has served me for 17 years and 220,000 miles, for a $16,606 purchase price.

No police report. I tried to file one (online) with LAPD. A week later LAPD came back and denied the report, claiming lack of jurisdiction, because the accident occurred on a highway onramp. They referred me to the CHP. Because I had the other party's contact information, CHP just told me to file an accident report with the DMV. I mailed in that form, including a copy of the denied LAPD police report FWIW. I'm sure it'll go nowhere.